Armies of Gielinor/Zamorak Returns
The Zamorak Returns campaign settles during the God Wars period, where Zamorak tries to claim Hallowvale and destroy Zarosian and Saradominist forces in the regions. The campaign begins in Cave Canem, and completing an area unlocks all its neighbouring areas for play. Tactics Units Using Skeletons and Werewolves skillfully is the key to the early campaigns. Skeletons can be used to surround your own units for protection, or enemy ones to blockade them - a necromancer next to the skeleton heals it every turn, or raises a new one if it has been killed. The Zamorak ranger is a unit non-members do not get in the multi-player game. Assuming no terrain defences, it hits 90% of its total strength on any flyers or mages, 50% on any helpers and 25% on warriors. (See main page for full damage-class relationships) It is therefore very good against Owls and will kill Monks of they have not been boosted by bones or kills yet. It is not so good vs warriors, but 2 of them will kill a Paladin. Keep away from White Knights or Lions! Gargoyles are strong flyers, and can completely destroy a White Knight with 1 hit, or a lion or Greater Demon with 2. But they are vulnerable to archers and Icyenes. Spells *Waders, Bridge: obviously useful for crossing water and marsh obstacles that feature heavily on many maps. *Fire Shower, Greater Fire Rain: area spells that do 5 damage to 3x3 tiles or 7 damage to 5x5 tiles respectively. These are very useful for destroying groups of enemy Barbarians and Owls, slowing down his acquisition of buildings and interference with your own barbarians. Units that are not destroyed by these spell will often stop advancing and wait to be healed, or even retreat to a building to heal, which can be decisive in the Conquest of Hallowvale. *Vampyric Blood: this has a confusing description - what it does is gives the unit back any points it has hit on an enemy it attacks in melee, as long as the possessing unit survives. So for example a Black Knight attacks a Lion - the Knight hits the lion for 12 bringing it down to 28, the Lion then hits the Knight for 14 leaving it at 11, but the Knight gets back the 12 it hit on the Lion for restoring it to 23. This works on both attack and defence. It makes a melee unit very hard to kill, but not invincible. It costs the unit 1 health per turn. *Shrine of Zamorak: allows you to avoid summoning a Werewolf to get to level 2, thus preserving mana for tougher units. The most common use is to raise a ranger as early as possible to attack owls. Missions Cave Canem *Difficulty: 1 *Reward: Werewolf Opponent's units: Wolves, Werewolves Strategy: Place Necromancers at the centre of groups of Skeletons so they heal them. Necromancers should not fight but be used only to heal weakend/revive dead skeletons. Try to use terrain to your advantage (occupy the edge of woods so that you have a defensive bonus and the enemy does not). Position skeletons to defend Necromancers as shown to the right. Notes: There is no need to capture anything, nor to try to advance over the bridges & rivers. Concentrate on getting into a good position and formation with Necromancers supporting Skeletons. East Swamp *Difficulty: 1 *Reward: Waders Opponent's units: Paladins Strategy: After taking the nearest portal, rush the barbarian chieftain to the other one, and keep the rest of their army stuck with your army where the river's passage gets narrow. West Swamp *Difficulty: 1 *Reward: +5% mana per turn Opponent's units: Barbarians, Monks, Paladins, Saradomin Rangers Haunted Woods *Difficulty: 2 *Reward: Zamorak Ranger Opponent's units: Owls, Paladins, Saradomin Rangers, and Barbarians Strategy: (Spoiler) Go claim rushing and build up your forces (3 long lines) at the same time. Try to lure the saradomin ranger that is in the tower out of his post and kill it. If you were lucky, a saradomin ranger should block the enemy's portal. If there is a monk healing Valis, kill that monk. Notes: It is impossible to attack the owl unless this is the second time you are playing this map, so just make sure it does not block your portal. Even if it does, it is of no major concern as long as no nearby enemy barbarians are around. It is a very impractical and wasteful move to trap ONE owl with FOUR werewolves,as you would have wasted 400 mana for pretty much nothing,and the owl can easily fight its way out. East Woods *Difficulty: 2 *Reward: +5% mana per turn. Opponent's units: Strategies: Spam Black Knights (if you have them at this stage) and you'll be fine. Watch out to not get trapped by owls. Notes: Port Phasmatys *Difficulty: 2 *Reward: Sea Slug Strategy: Protect the Saradomin barbarian for him to capture a portal, defend YOUR portal and set up an army. The Saradomin and Sea Slugs forces will fight each others, allowing you to set up a decent amount of soldiers to win this battle. Capture the southernmost portal, and then the northermost portal. Notes: It is impossible for Saradomin to win. When it is the Sea slug's turn,four gods appear at the bottom of the screen yet only three of those are actually used. This battle will be a lot easier if you have black knights. The Hollows *Difficulty: 2 *Reward: Black Knight Opponent's units: Barbarians, Monks, Paladins, Saradomin Rangers Strategy: First equip you Barbarian Chieftain with Waders. You want him to get to the Tower in the middle of the map. Summon a werewolf and two barbarians. Get one to the east village and the other to the west village. Continue your expansion. When you reach Turn 3, your Chieftain should have gotten the Tower. DO NOT BOTHER ABOUT THE MIDDLE PORTAL. Continue to bring werewolves to the middle portal. When the AI begins to summon some owls, summon rangers. Don't forget to continue your expansion with your barbarians. If you are quick enough, you should be able to get 6 of the villages in no time, and without resistance. When you have enough forces fighting near the middle portal, bring your Chieftain and capture the portal. If you are successful, you should have almost won the game. Continue to bring rangers and barbarians and close on the AI portal. He should go down in no time. Notes: The key to the fight is to capture the Tower and the villages. He almost never summon rangers (1 per match), and very often summon owls. It is important to summon a good number of rangers. Mort Myre Swamp *Difficulty: 3 *Reward: Fire Shower spell Opponent's units: Barbarians, Monks, Paladins, Owls, Saradomin Rangers, Lions, Saradomin Mages Strategy: Begin your match by capturing most of the villages with your two Chieftains. Try to capture the tower with a Barbarian Chieftain that has waders (Requires completion of East Swamp) while fending off the CPU's units that are coming through the swamp and attacking your portal. Backup the Barbarian with Zamorak Rangers (Requires completion of Haunted Woods) as the opponent rarely summons Lions to go after the tower if there are units on the east side of the map. If you have Black Knights, you can easily defeat the Lions by swarming them with two or three knights. Do not be hasty: you will win if you continue to supply Rangers and Knights to your front line. Notes: The AI rarely summon units other than Barbarians and Owls, so having a solid line of rangers is the key for victory. South Swamp *Difficulty: 3 *Reward: Vampyric Blood potion Opponent's Units: Barbarians, Paladins, Owls, Monks, Saradomin Rangers, Priests, Centaurs, Lions, Unicorns. Strategy: In the beginning, be sure to summon many Barbarians (At least 3-4, along with your Chieftain). Send you Chieftain to the tower, and your barbarians to the adjacent villages. Saradomin will mostly try to get your tower; send a barbarian to the left to get the portal. When the portal is taken, summon two barbarians to get the villages on the left side of the map. With enough black knights and rangers, you should be able to get to Saradomin portal easily. Notes: Saradomin will, once, try to get the left portal; sending a black knight to protect it is more than enough. Mort'ton *Difficulty: 3 *Reward: Bridger spell Opponent's units: Barbarians, Saradomin Owls, Paladins, Saradomin Rangers, Unicorns, Priests, Centaurs , Lions. Strategy: This map can be quite hard. At the beggining, use you hellhounds to kill the two Chieftains, and possibly a third one (You will get one hellhound killed though). Continue to advance, spamming black knights and mages to the left side to counter any attacks. On the right side, keep supplying barbarians, and hellhounds if you completed The Burgh (If you do not have hellhounds, werewolves are just enough). This side is generally not used much in this battle, but Saradomin likes to get his barbarians to your portal this way. Keep getting villages, while your Werewolves/Hellhounds fend off any barbarians they come across. If you capture the map's 4 towers, you should be able to win. Just get enough black knights and mages. Notes: To beat the first lion, a Black Knight with the Vampyric Blood and two mages should be enough to stop him. Hallowglade *Difficulty: 3 *Reward: Shrine of Zamorak spell Opponent's units: Saradomin Owls, Barbarians, Monks, Paladins, Saradomin Rangers, Lions, Preists, Centaurs Strategy: This one is very easy, as it is in a very open battlefield. Summon 2 barbarians and capture the nearby villages, and extend to the south. Saradomin uses diversified units, so be sure to supply your armies with rangers, knights and mages. If you have Gargoyles, this will be even easier: Summon only 3 of them should be enough to win. Continue your expansion and get his portal. Notes: Be sure to look to the side of terrains, as Saradomin likes to get barbarians to your villages the sneaky way. Crossing of the Salve *Difficulty: 4 *Reward: Greater Fire Rain Spell Opponent's units: Barbarians, Paladins, Monks, Saradomin Owls, White Knights, Lions, Icyenes Strategy: Bridge the gap in the nearest bridge with the Bridger spell from Mort'ton, and send one Chieftain over to claim the villages across the river, while the remaining Chieftain hops from village to village each turn on your side of the river. If you have the Vampyre Blood spell, summon a Black Knight as soon as possible as there will be plenty of melee combat vs White Knights. If you have completed Slayer Tower, make it a priority to start churning out Gargoyles to assist your vampire Black Knight in mopping up the opposition. (it seems that on this map, Rangers are rarely, if ever, summoned by the opponent). However, he does use mages, so be careful of your gargoyles or they will just become easy targets for the mages. Notes: It is recommended to complete the Mort'ton battle prior to attempting this as doing so would provide a means to cross the river effectively, otherwise it will be slow trying to pass the swamp on the eastern side. Magic Acquisition *Difficulty: 4 *Reward: Zamorak Mage Strategy: Like the Port Phasmatys mission, focus on defense. Get the tower next to the Mage Arena, and go around it to capture the buldings. Around turn 4, White Knights will be within range of your portal; using black knights with vampyric blood will make short work of it. Keep defending your base with rangers and knights. Continue to fight Saradomin and team with the Desert Mages. When the two teams have been weakened enough, capture the two portals simultaneously. If Saradomin has beaten the mages already, just restart the level. Notes: Altough Saradomin starts with quite good units, he only summons owls and paladins afterwards. The Mage Arena is easily captured from the holes in the Mage Arena's walls. The Burgh *Difficulty: 4 *Reward: Hellhound Strategy: First, let the mages and hellhounds attack each other, then slowly advance with black knights swarming the hellhounds. When the hellhounds are defeated, spam the wizards with Zamorak rangers. If you have the bridge, use it to give yourself a quick path to the wizards' portal. Another possible strategy can be found here:http://funorb.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:Armies_of_Gielinor_advice#The_Burgh The Conquest of Hallowvale *Difficulty: 4 *Reward: Greater Demon Opponent's units: Barbarians, Paladins, Saradomin Owls, Saradomin Rangers, White Knights, Lions, Centaurs, Icyenes Strategy: Send one Chieftain to the next portal immediately. Do not use it to capture anything along the way - leave that to the other Chieftain. Cast Shrine of Zamorak and summon a Zamorak Ranger as defense against the nearby Owl. Do not bother to summon anything else till the second portal is captured. To do this, cast Greater Fire Rain on the approaching enemy group on turn 4, delaying their advance just enough to capture the portal. Deal with the attack force, and prepare to meet the second group of attackers. From there, aim at securing the next portal as soon as possible. Make sure the opponent does not get the nearby tower or villages, as this makes a difference on how much icyenes the opponent summons. Make sure to have enough Rangers because at this point in the game, the opponent will be summoning an Icyene nearly every turn. Also, make sure your rangers are not in range of the icyenes, who will be camping at the mountains west of the second portal. If you do, all the icyenes will simply come out, taking out a large number of rangers and putting you in a lot of trouble. The AI attempts to send a few icyenes to your starting portal too,to delay any troops that may be coming out from there. If you have already gotten the second portal, just ignore them. It is also advisable to use a few barbarians to lure the icyenes out, and take them out using your rangers. You might want to use mages from now on, as the AI starts summoning some warriors/helpers, and their superior range makes it perfect for those wanting to use barbarians as bait. Using rangers will make it extremely hard to kill warriors, and they always get too close to the opponent's forces. Make sure you have enough mages,though, about 10. If the opponent somehow manages to kill of your forces,you will be hard pressed to get some more back at their portal as the distance between the two portals has already become significant, and you definitely do not want him rebuilding his forces. Keep the few rangers you have left,as the opponent also summons a few rangers, and it is easier to deal with them using rangers yourselves. Black knights are acceptable,but it will take quite some time for them to reach. Once this portal has been acquired, ignore all other portals and instead spam rangers directly at Efaritay from this portal, as killing her ends the game immediately. If this is pulled off effectively,this mission can be completed in 25 turns or less. Note: The icyenes usually make sure they are in a position in which they can attack your forces the next turn, but not vice versa.(in fact most units do unless they are targeting a very important unit,such as a barbarian,in which they will try to get to it as fast as possible). As such, using a barbarian as a bait is absolutely essential if you wish to make this mission a quick one, as most of the time, the AI targets the barbarian more than anything else. Slayer Tower *Difficulty: 5 *Reward: Gargoyle Opponent's units: Hellhounds, Greater Demons, Gargoyles Strategy: This is extremely easy even though the difficulty is high, take out his gargoyles with a few archers and keep some knights to take out his hellhounds. If you have pyrelords, this will be even easier. This is extremely easy if you have Zamorak Mages and possibly a Black Knight with Vampric Blood. Alternatively, another strategy is to summon two barbarians to assimilate the villages, a few knights to take care of the hellhounds, and spawn his demons and gargoyles with zammy mages. I won in 17 turns with that strategy. Notes: The opponent mostly summon Greater Demons. The Hellhounds tend to get stuck to the side of the map and don't move. He rarely summons gargoyles, perhaps only 1 or 2, excluding the one he has at the start, so there is no need to spam rangers. The opponent tends to send hellhounds onto your portal to block it when you have no other units left, though it is highly unlikely that would happen. If it does,though,you would have lost. The Fall of Senntisten *Difficulty: 5 *Reward: Pyrelord Strategy: Travel to the north at the east side of the mountain with your chieftain and take all villages you see. Let only one Zamorak ranger travel with him to protect him (using shrine of Zamorak). When you reach the portal at the north-east, take it. At that time you will have a lot of mana. When you got the portal, take the house at the north and make a hellhound and a gargoyle. Attack the priest and the barbarian at the tower to the west of you. Take the tower with your chieftain. Now start making an army to take over Saradomins northern portal. Leave Zaros, he will attack Saradomin, not you. When you got the northern portal, go for the western Saradomin portal the same way and make some barbs to take the villages. When you have defeated Saradomin's forces, try to take the southernmost portal, as it will give you a place to spawn Zaros with gargoyles, though it is much better if you get it early in the game. Make sure you do not try to in the first few turns, as the mages stationed near the narrow passage your barbarian must go through will just shoot you down.They move off after some time. If you wish to, you may use rangers,though it will take both more turns and mana. Achievements for this campaign Trivia *Cave Canem, in Latin, means "Beware of Dog". *In the campaign advertisement, it says "While Guthix sleeps, with Zaros cornered, Zamorak returns". This may be reference to the quest in Runescape "While Guthix Sleeps". It could also mean that Guthix is not involved with the campaign in any way.